Jordan Kyrou scored on a breakaway with 3:52 left in overtime as the St. Louis Blues defeated the host Florida Panthers 5-4 on Saturday night.
Kyrou also scored in regulation as the Blues snapped a two-game losing streak, rallying from a 4-1 third-period deficit.
Brandon Saad, Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Tarasenko also scored for the Blues. Saad and O’Reilly each added an assist, and Thomas Greiss made 33 saves.
However, Blues center Brayden Schenn left the game due to a lower-body injury and did not return.
The Panthers, who concluded an eight-game homestand with a 3-3-2 record, got one goal each from Aaron Ekblad, Radko Gudas, Carter Verhaeghe and Anton Lundell. Sam Reinhart added two assists, and Spencer Knight made 32 saves.
It was Verhaeghe’s team-leading 12th goal of the season. It was also a big game for Panthers’ defensemen, who got goals from Ekblad and Gudas and an assist from Gustav Forsling.
Panthers center Aleksander Barkov, who scored 39 goals last season but has five in this campaign, missed the game due to a non-COVID illness.
Early on, it was all Panthers as they had a 16-1 advantage in shots on goal over the first 11-plus minutes. Florida outscored the Blues 3-0 during that span.
However, during the final eight-plus minutes of the first period, the Blues outshot the Panthers 9-1, scoring the team’s only goal during that span.
Florida needed 80 seconds to score the first goal as Ekblad picked up a loose puck, turned around and fired it past Greiss’ stick.
The Panthers made it 2-0 with 2:58 gone on a long shot by Gudas that handcuffed Greiss.
Florida made it 3-0 as Gudas separated Tarasenko from the puck. Reinhart pounced, and his pass led to a Verhaeghe breakaway goal.
St. Louis finally got on the board with 11:39 gone in the first as Saad banged in a rebound of a shot by Josh Leivo.
Florida dominated the second period with a 16-6 shots-on-goal advantage and the only tally, which came off a two-on-one rush. Reinhart got the primary assist again, this time feeding Lundell.
The Blues cut their deficit to 4-2 on O’Reilly’s clever turn-around, wrap-around goal with 11:44 left in the third.
St. Louis’ Kyrou hit the back of the net with 6:17 left, and Tarasenko tied the score with 3:49 remaining.
Torey Krug, who had two assists, then made the lead pass to spring Kyrou on his game-winning breakaway.
–Field Level Media
